What brings parties together? Doubts over bipartisanship

President Barack Obama achieved bipartisan consensus on at least one issue Tuesday: Democrats and Republicans were united in their skepticism of his latest effort to bridge the partisan divide.

Obama’s first meeting with congressional leaders from both parties since the watershed midterm elections injected a jolt of energy into what was shaping up to be among the lamest of lame duck congressional sessions.

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But it also raised old questions about Obama’s approach to bipartisanship – from Democrats, who worry, and not for the first time, that he’s selling them out, and from suspicious Republicans who have accused Obama of ignoring them when Democrats alone held the reins of power.

During the two hour White House meeting Tuesday, Obama admitted he’d neglected his relationship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader and soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), with whom he’s had chilly, sporadic interactions in the past. (See: McConnell's campaigning pays off)

"The president seemed very genuine in his commitment to changing the working relationship we've had in the past," House GOP Whip – and soon-to-be Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told POLITICO.

"I want to take him at face value," said Cantor.

Members of Obama’s own party, if anything, sounded more skeptical of Obama’s overture to the GOP.

They fear he is jeopardizing the party’s already-shaky bargaining position by undermining the insistence by their congressional leadership that the tax cuts should not be extended for households earning more than $250,000. (See: Small businesses and the bottom line)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) worries GOP negotiations with Obama are just “a stalling tactic because they think we'll get blamed if the tax cuts don't remain in place for the middle class.”

One aide to a top House Democrat questioned if Obama had any strategy in the tax-cut fight other than capitulation, asking, “Why [would Republicans] buy the cow if [the White House is] giving away milk for free?”

And Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, a chief deputy whip for House Democrats, said Obama would be foolish to try to negotiate a deal with the GOP, circumventing the Democrats’ liberal leadership because "the sentiment in the Democratic Caucus is that we stick with the plan." (See: House GOP touts its new team)

Yet for all the complaining, Obama did manage to momentarily seize the high ground he lost during the bitterly partisan health care fight and a bruising fall campaign.

And while it is uncertain which direction Obama will ultimately head on policy questions such as the tax cuts, the president made it clear that he’s intent on pursuing one concrete political objective: Defining himself as the one figure in either party committed to repairing the dysfunctional two-party system heading into 2012. (See: Poll: Non-voters split over Obama)

“The American people did not vote for gridlock,” said Obama, delivering a clipped, sober report on the meeting he insisted will be the first in a series of bipartisan consultations.